Alternative operator Netomnia, which is currently merging with Brsk (here) and supported by broadband ISP YouFibre, has given an update to ISPreview on their plan to deploy ADTRAN’s cutting edge 50G PON kit across their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. This should start to go live before the end of 2024 and package speeds of 40Gbps will be offered.
Just to recap. The combined networks of Netomnia and Brsk currently reach over 1.82 million UK premises as ‘Ready for Service‘ and this is home to a total customer base of 190,000 (30th Sept 2024). But the merged group also has a short-term target of growing this coverage to reach 3 million premises (coverage) by the end of 2025, cementing their position as one of the largest national networks.
Both operators are presently using XGS-PON technology to power their networks, which is capable of delivering symmetric speeds up to 10Gbps (YouFibre already has a 7-8Gbps package for £99.99 per month). But at the start of this year we reported that Netomnia were planning a major network upgrade, which would see them rolling out ADTRAN’s 50Gbps (50G-PON) capable kit (here) – the first UK provider to do so.
However, little was known about the actual roll-out plan for this bleeding edge technology, which is perhaps understandable given that the 50 Gigabit Passive Optical Network (PON) standard is still relatively recent (here). Similarly, at the time of the original announcement, ADTRAN’s related SDX 6400 Optical Line Terminals (OLT) didn’t even appear on their website and that remains true today.
Since then another alternative network, Ogi, has recently announced plans to deploy 50G PON technology into their own FTTP network using Nokia‘s kit in Wales (here), which is due to go live sometime in 2025. Suffice to say that we thought now would be a good time to check in on Netomnia and see how they’re progressing.
What’s new?
The plan is to start rolling out the live 50G-PON service from ADTRAN by the end of 2024 and it will then take around a year to fully deploy – initially based on demand (a difficult thing to quantify for this sort of speed). The new kit will be deployed alongside their existing XGS-PON platform, without disrupting existing customers.
The service will also be launching with some new products, including a full 10Gbps symmetric service (you can’t strictly do this via XGS-PON, due to network overheads and advertising rules etc.) and a 40Gbps package to follow – available for both homes and businesses (exact launch dates for these are not yet known). But naturally this will also require a new ONT (optical modem) and a monster router, the details of which are also not yet known.
Suffice to say that this is an entirely new realm of performance for the residential market, one that will put the provider into a different league. But it’s also likely to be very expensive on the domestic side, which suggests that the real prize may be in its marketing value and bragging rights. Particularly since neither end-users nor most of the internet are really able to fully harness 40Gbps today (even 1-10Gbps is still a huge challenge – Why Buying Gigabit Broadband Doesn’t Always Deliver). But technological evolution rarely waits for the slowest users and devices to catch-up.
Naturally, there will always be those who find reason to moan, even when a member of the industry does something as striking as this. But such developments are also the reason why Netomnia are one of the most exciting alternative networks in the UK, which is in no small part down to their willingness to push the boundaries of network technology – often while setting new benchmarks for consumer speeds and affordability.
On the other hand, such ambition does have its limits, which in this case might be tempered a bit by some of the supply-side issues that ADTRAN have recently been experiencing. Getting brand-new technologies to market and in a finished state is rarely a completely smooth process.